Two hundred meters above the sweltering heat of the Prieska airfield, Beau Basson is sweating. HeÂ’d released off the winch, into what he thought was a thermal, a declared world distance record beckoning. But things arenÂ’t going so well. He is still low, with no end in sight for his miserable climb rate.

Peter Wild flies the north face of the Eiger

Xavier Murillo meets David Barish, the true father of paragliding and the paraglider